YESTERDAY, the author discussed prostitution and the criminal laws of Lagos State. He also touched on jumping of bail by a suspect and its consequences for the surety. In this last instalment of the serial, the author takes a look at the law, self-defense, and trespass.
By Chidi Okoye
Section 6: Civil Remedies
After completing the incident duty, I was off duty for a whole day. So, I decided to go see a movie with my wife. The kids had gone to school, and, coincidentally, my wife too was off duty. I paid for two tickets to see Avengers Endgame.
My sister-in-law pleaded that I should get her a ticket too, but I told her it was a couple-only outing, so she would only be intruding. We were still laughing at the joke when a call came in on my phone. It was the OC Legal.
Curious, I quickly picked the call. But before I could greet him, he said, “I want to see you in my office as soon as possible.” Before I could complain that I was off duty, he ended the call. So much for the outing with my wife. Well, she understood duty came first. So, she made no comment.
My sister in-law, on the other hand, was mischievously happy, because obviously my present predicament would force me to forfeit one movie ticket. I transferred the e-tickets to my wife’s phone and headed back to the office I left less than 3 hours ago.
I went straight to OC legal’s office. He was sitting behind his desk. I came to attention and greeted him.
“I am sorry to cut your rest short, but this case is very sensitive, that’s why you are here.”
He handed me the file to the case. I opened it and quickly read through the IPO’s report. I noticed the OC Legal had made a brief report and also itemized what I should do.
“I will look into it, sir, and get back to you,” I said, as I came to attention the second time.
I noticed a man in a black suit, sitting on a chair, adjacent to the desk of the OC Legal, whom the OC Legal instructed to follow me.
“Is he a lawyer?” the man asked, in reference to me.
The OC Legal didn’t respond, so he reluctantly followed me to my office.
When we stepped out of the office, three men were waiting for us: two were young, while the one who stood in the middle was somewhere in his 70s.
He looked at the man in the suit. “Any hope?” he asked, but didn’t get a reply, as the man in the suit looked at me and introduced himself as Barrister Jide Davis, and the old man, as his father.
Before he went further, one of the two young men cut him off, and added that the father was the suspect in this case.
The two young men turned out to be the IPOs handling the matter. One of them handed me the exhibits they had recovered in the case. There were two of them, one of them, a machete, was in a transparent bag.
I held both the file and the machete, in one hand, while I inspected the other exhibit, which was in a dark bag. As I opened it, one of the IPOs warned me to brace myself for what I was about to see. It was a human hand, and from the looks of it, it belonged to a child.
I took some time to go through the file. The old man was a retired police officer. He had a farmland somewhere at Ikorodu where he raised various livestock, ranging from chicken, cattle, to fish. His fish were mainly catfish, and he had a good number of them in an unfenced pond. The fish pond was located at a boundary his land shared with his neighbour’s land, which was covered with bush.
The neighbour’s land, like the suspect’s land, was not fenced. But the old man used bamboo wood to build a fence for all his livestock, except the chickens, which were properly housed.
Scavengers that had access to the neighbour’s land took advantage of the insecurity of these livestock to steal the fish. As much as the bamboo created a 9 feet tall wall, the scavengers forced their hands through the space, in-between the bamboo wall, and dropped fish food on the soil, close to the wall.
The fishpond was shallow, and filled with fish that swam to the area where the fish food was sprinkled, only for the scavenger to catch them and throw them into a bucket of water.
The old man complained about the matter to his son, who had just finished from law school, and who advised him that Section 199 empowered him to defend his premises against trespassers.
Two days after the advice, the old man stayed vigilant until it was dark and quiet. Then he noticed movements of light behind the bamboo wall. He waited, until the person holding the light sprinkled food on the ground, close to his fishpond.
When the fish started swimming to the surface, he quietly walked close to where this activity was going on, holding a sharp machete.
The person holding the light on the other side of the wall did not know that it was not business as usual, as his hand reached out and grabbed the fish.
The old man raised the machete, and before the suspect could pull the fish through the bamboo wall, the sharp machete came down, cutting his hand off. The lifeless hand wiggled on ‘the ground as blood splashed everywhere.
An excruciating scream of pain came from behind the bamboo wall. The old man simply grabbed the severed hand and threw it over the wall. He didn’t run because he felt his actions were right.
His son, the lawyer, quoted Section 6 of this law, which states that, “When, by this law, any act is declared to be lawful, no action can be brought in respect of it, except where the lawfulness of the act is in question.”
He obviously quoted Section 6 to justify his father’s action to read Section 199, Defence of Premises against Trespassers.
Section 7: Contempt of Court
I was still buried deep in the case file, trying to relate it with the two sections the lawyer had raised as defense. Then I heard a voice, “Good day, sir.”
I ooked up at the person. She was a middle-aged lady. As I looked at her face, it was obvious she had been crying. My gaze shifted to the person standing beside her. It was a boy. He held a hand to his chest. I noticed a part of his right hand was missing.
His wrist was heavily bandaged, and he was still crying, wiping his tears at intervals.
I asked for his age. He told me he was nine years old. Then the boy narrated his side of the story, while his mother helped him to write it down.
He stated that that fateful day was his first time of attempting to steal fish from the old man. He only decided to follow his friend that day, because his mother had complained that she was hungry. It was quite unfortunate that he lost his hand on his first attempt.
“Don’t you know what you did is stealing,” the son of the old man asked him.
‘I turned to him and said, “A person under the age of 10 years is not criminally responsible for any act or omission. You should know better; you are a lawyer, after all.”
I was moved with compassion at the boy’s story. It was unfortunate that a boy had assumed the responsibility of a man. He was trying to feed his mother, because his father had left her with him and his younger sister.
After he finished his statement, we went straight to visit the scene of the incident. We collectively agreed that the old man would not go with us because we presumed we might be confronted by an angry mob.
Our assumption was valid. A crazy crowd was waiting to attack the old man. But they were disappointed when they saw only the boy and his present condition.
Angered by his deformity, the crowd went on rampage. They charged into the old man’s farm and started destroying his farm produce. I quickly called the DPO of the nearest division who was on stand-by with anti-riot Police.
Their timely intervention stopped what would have degenerated into a breakdown of law and order, because the crowd had started assaulting the old man’s son. We had to lock him in the Police vehicle for his own safety.
After peace was restored to the scene by the DPO and his men, I took my time to listen to the old man’s neighbour’s story. He said he had advised him repeatedly to take the matter to the Police, but he insisted that no one could teach him how to defend his property.
He had threatened to cut off any hand he saw on his farm produce. I encouraged the neighbour to give us a statement, which he did. My Inspector also collected his details, informing him that he would be called on to give evidence in court.
I quickly placed a call to the OC Legal and updated him on ‘the development. He directed me to move straight to the court covering that area; that he would send one of his lawyers to join us in court.
Most of the witnesses we met at the scene followed us to court. The DPO had to beef up security around the court premises when I told him that the suspect would be brought to court.
The lawyer from the OC Legal came with the suspect and met us in court. He presented the charge sheet to the registrar. Some minutes later the court raised and attended to the matter.
While the old man was in the dock, listening to the registrar read the charge, a young lady, in her mid-thirties, walked into the court and ran straight to the dock.
She held on to the old man.
“You cannot stand trial for Sola’s mistake,” she shouted, as she dragged the old man out of the dock, towards an open door. I quickly deployed uniformed policemen to secure the door. Then I walked up to the lady.
“What do you think you doing?” I asked her.
The old man placed a hand on my shoulder. “She is my daughter,” he lamented.
The lady was crying, still trying to drag the old man away. But she was prevented from doing that by some police officers who dragged her away from the dock.
She walked away from the dock.
But, as the policemen relaxed, she charged towards the lawyer who was obviously her brother. She held him by the neck and bit his left ear so hard that blood gushed like a fountain.
As Sola tried to put pressure on the bleeding ear, the young lady attacked his face, hitting him repeatedly with her high heel.
“God punish you!” she shouted, as she attacked him.
Before the police could stop her, she had done some serious damage. Sola ran to the Magistrate’s desk which was more secured. His sister was arrested and taken to the nearest Police station.
The magistrate directed the police to charge her for contempt of court. Then she went back to her chamber and waited for the tension to lessen.
Some minutes later, the registrar addressed the court, directing we come the next day.
I was about taking the old man back to the office, only for the DPO to call me to come give a statement on what happened in court, with regards to ‘the lady that disrupted the court proceedings.
Well, there was already a charge of contempt of court against the lady. But my question was: will the magistrate sit on a matter when she was also a witness in the same matter?
Note: You can read the rest in the printed copies of Checkmate, published by Media Tiger Communications. The book is scheduled for launch on October 5, 2025, at Balmora Hall, Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos.
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